Yes, Grishka, all political powers involved in war routinely spout exaggerated propaganda that is calculated to stir outrage and hatred of the "enemy" in the hearts of young soldiers and make them rush out bravely to the slaughter. It's a tactic as old as politics itself....and as dirty.

Germany only became the "enemy du jour" for the English in the 20th century, mainly due to the Kaiser's foolish desire to build a very large navy that could theoretically challenge the Royal Navy. That was when Germany became an "enemy" of the UK.

Prior to that, France (and quite often Spain) had been England's favorite "enemies du jour" since some time in the 1400's all the way through to the final defeat of Napoleon in 1815. The Germans (Prussians) were valued allies of England in the wars against Napoleon, indeed the Germans had long been allies of the English, this alliance being strengthened by the fact that the Prussians were a Protestant power, while France was a primarily Roman Catholic society...and Spain, of course, was as Catholic as you can get. Organized religion played a large part in forming political alliances.

If the Kaiser had not decided to build a very large modern war fleet for Germany in the early years of the 20th century, I doubt that they would have found themselves fighting the UK at all...they would probably have won the First World War against France and Russia with the English opting out of it...and Hitler would never have risen to power and the Nazis would never have come into being.

It would have been another unfortunate defeat for France, as in the Franco-Prussian War before it, but France would certainly have survived it, and I think the world would have been a whole lot better off if things had gone that way instead of the way they did.

And we in the English-speaking world would not have been told for several generations now how very nasty the Germans are, would we?